Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 157

Chapter 157: The Prisoners
“Jin.” Trace gulped. Jin was the dreamer.

The dream changed, and the shoemaker was alone, seething with rage as he struggled against ropes, either real or metaphorical.

Trace stepped back into the shadows, unnoticed, and left the dream. There were no others at the moment, but if Jin was here, chances are Katia was, too.

How would he tell Anaisa? He gulped, wanting to linger here in the void like a coward instead of facing her.

He had no idea how many guards there were now. Two seemed sufficient to guard a single, powerless woman like Emily, but the more captives, the more guards there would be.

Feeling sick to his stomach, Trace closed his eyes for a moment and waited for the feeling to pass. The guilt, the horror. Poor Katia, poor Jin.

Poor Anaisa. She would be devastated. After risking her life to make sure her sister had gotten away to safety, she would find out that she was wrong. Katia was not safe.

She was in terrible danger.

He glanced up, and saw that two bubbles had joined little Ewan’s; the doctor and Deborah must have fallen asleep as well. Anaisa was now alone in the waking world.

The tug of consciousness came all too soon, but he did not resist it. He couldn’t stay here.

He opened his eyes to the darkness of night, and sighed heavily.

“Are you all right?” Anaisa’s voice was nearby, and he moved his head to look at her.

She sat on a rock, holding baby Ewan as he slept.

Her hair was braided over one shoulder, shining like a rope of burnished bronze in the flickering firelight. Slowly, he sat up and stared into her eyes, feeling all the conflict of what he’d learned during his sleep warring across his face.

“You have news,” Anaisa realized, scooting closer to him and whispering. “What happened?”

“They’re nearby,” He opened with the good news. “Practically directly underneath us.”

“They? Emily?” His wife’s eyes brightened. “That’s wonderful!”

“Not just Emily,” He frowned and took a deep breath. “There are others, now. She heard voices. She doesn’t know how many other prisoners or guards there may be.”

“But that should make it easier to find the entrance, shouldn’t it? With so many to take care of, they will have to go for supplies and water more often! We’ll keep a keen eye out and find where they go in and out, maybe even today! This is great news.” Anaisa was excited enough that she began to unintentionally rouse the newborn, but she patted his back with one hand and gently bounced him in her arms until he calmed.

She did it as naturally as if he were her own baby, almost instinctively. Trace smiled softly at his gorgeous wife, and shook his head.

“You don’t understand. After Emily, I went into another dream. One nearby, another captive.” He paused and took a deep breath. “It was Jin. He was dreaming of his and Katia’s capture.”

Anaisa froze. Ewan protested softly in her arms, and she resumed the bouncing with distraction pulling her eyes to the distance.

“Katia’s being held in the cave? A prisoner?”

“I assume so, though I do not know for sure. I only know Jin is there,” Trace swallowed. “I’m… sorry.”

Would she blame him? He didn’t know if the couple had been captured before Trace had run away from the palace or in the two weeks since then. Was their capture the direct result of his defiance?

“You cannot apologize to me for this,” Anaisa sighed. “For other things, perhaps, but this… this is all the evil of Barnabas. To throw two young women from their home, his own relatives, after murdering his cousin, and now to imprison one of them? What could you have done to prevent his evil?”

“I wish there was something I could have done. Some way to prevent all this.” He responded.

“There is no use in such wishes, we can only work now on a plan of rescue.” Anaisa’s brow furrowed in thought. “We cannot involve the other two, it would be too dangerous for them to get close enough to be captured or implicated…”

“I agree, but I also think it’s too dangerous for you.” Trace cut in, moving closer to lean his back against the rock his wife sat upon.

“There is no way you are going to attempt a rescue of multiple prisoners alone, Trace. You’d be insane to try,” Anaisa criticized. “Even if I’m only going out there as bait, that would be of some use to you.”

“Bait??” Trace’s voice cracked. “That’s out of the question. I’m not endangering you. Besides being a gross violation of my duty as your husband, it wouldn’t be prudent to risk your life on such a slim chance of success.”

“You say the chances are slim with two of us, so you want to try alone? Your logic lacks a certain internal consistency, Trace.” She blew out a breath. “Come now, until you come up with something that has a good chance of working without me, I’m staying involved.”

Trace stared at her for a moment. “I got along rather well in the palace, you know. Sneaking along, finding secret notes and uncovering a plot…”

“Mmm,” Anaisa hummed. “And at the time I thought you had amazing spy skills and stealth capabilities. Now that I know you were using magical powers to glean secrets from people’s dreams, I’m far less impressed by the other talents I assumed you were using.”

“That’s not fair,” He challenged, “I still accomplished all that, regardless of what specific talents I used.”

“With some help from me,” She pointed out, “How much else was pure luck and happenstance, or the machinations of the Count who wanted you to be imbedded deeper into the good graces of the royal family?”

“Wow,” He shook his head, half teasing. “You’re just going to cut me down as completely useless?”

“You’re extremely useful,” Anaisa leaned towards him with a small smile, “But even you have to admit that my presence does make some small improvement, doesn’t it?”